A prime requirement for first-aid dressings is that they should be highly conformable and pliable since they have to be used for the dressing of highly rounded surfaces such as fingers as well as for flexing surfaces such as knuckles.
Conventionally first-aid dressings are formed as a relatively bulky but small pad of an absorbent material such as gauze layers adhered to a larger backing sheet made of a woven fabric or filmic material. Usually the pad is covered by layers of cover-stock intermediate the pad material on the wound to reduce adherence between the wound eschar and the fibres of the absorbent material.
The manufacturing of such dressings requires need to maintain accurate registry between the coverstock and the pad and the pad and backing layer during the production stage.
Known dressings may also suffer from the disadvantage that, because they are manufactured from highly porous materials, airborne bacteria can enter the dressing and infect the wound. This problem may be further accentuated where the dressings are not waterproof and water-borne bacteria and viruses can enter or leave the dressings.
We have now found that the problems associated with manufacture and bacterial contamination may be reduced by highly pliable and conformable dressings which comprise a composite of coextensive layers.